FG Advocates New Approaches in Education, Says Existing Investments Have Failed

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The Federal Government has lamented that despite huge investments in the nation’s basic education sector, not much has been attained in terms of desired results.

The Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, stated this while declaring open the 25th quarterly meeting of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Management with the Executive Chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) on Tuesday in Abuja.

Also, Sununu said it is unacceptable that Nigeria parades the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, as well as the highest

low literacy rate, with a national average of about 60%.

Speaking further at the event, which had as its theme ‘Redefining National and State Priorities for Effective Basic Education Delivery”, the minister called for new strategies and collaborative efforts between the federal and state governments to address the identified problems.

“The investment so far in education is extremely commendable but the output is not commensurate; not matching the input, therefore we need to do something about that.

“It is really disheartening that despite the Federal Government’s huge investment, interventions and technical support, the basic education sub-sector is still bedevilled with these unpleasant occurrences: learners sitting on bare floors, high rate of drop-outs, increased number of out-of-school children, poor infrastructure, dilapidated classroom buildings, inadequate learning facilities, unqualified teachers, inadequate monitoring, inequitable access and low learning outcomes which has resulted to the falling standard of education in our country.

”We cannot continue to sit on the fence and allow our educational system to continue to deteriorate, we must take the bull by the horn and delete the name of Nigeria among the ‘Learning Poverty’ countries.

“The theme is very apt because there are so many reasons we should sit down and redefine our priorities. Indices in the education (sector) are not in any way good,” the minister said.

Sununu called on chairmen of SUBEBs to review the current state of basic education in their various states by conducting needs assessment of all schools with a renewed determination to justify the Federal Government’s huge investment in the states.

“The SUBEB chairmen must also ensure that every child in their respective states benefit from the free, universal and compulsory basic education regardless of sex, ethnic or religious backgrounds, language or status, as this will reduce the incidence of out-of-school children syndrome,” he said.

On his part, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, called for new approaches to holistically address problems of basic education sector.

“There are emerging trends that demand new approaches in tackling them; these therefore call for new strategies. This is what informed the choice of the theme of this meeting,” Bobboyi said.

The UBEC boss also revealed that the commission has successfully conducted the 2022 National Personnel Audit fieldwork and the assessment on learning achievements.

”You may recall that the Kano meeting was held in the middle of the 2022 National Personnel Audit fieldwork. Shortly after, data collection for the 2022 National Assessment of Learning Achievements in Basic Education (NALABE) was conducted across the country. I am glad to report that the exercises were concluded successfully.

“The reports of the two activities are at the finalization stages and they will be disseminated to the public as soon as possible,” he said.